Consultative Supervision and Mentor Development: an initial exploration and case study

Abstract

The paper focuses on the conversations between one student teacher and her mentor during the mentor's first year in that role. Analysis of the conversations makes a modest contribution to the slim but growing literature on the process of mentoring in practice. The research adopts a methodology which not only aims to elicit what the mentor's practice is, but also explicitly aims to promote mentor development. Finally, the paper presents a case for exploring such participatory methodologies in future research on mentoring.

Mapping mentor teachers’ roles in mentoring dialogues

“…This was the case in 10 of the studies. In 10 other studies, a new framework or new categories were developed on the basis of the raw data according to the idea of "grounded-theory" (Edwards & Protheroe, 2004;Hawkey, 1998aHawkey, , 1998bMartin, 1997;Orland-Barak & Klein, 2005;Stanulis, 1995). In two studies, researchers combined using an existing analysis framework and developing a new one.…”

“…We speak of the "first position" when supervisory activities are carried out by a member of the school staff who is mostly working in the classroom as a teacher. In the literature, this position is diversely referred to as "mentor" (Edwards & Collison, 1996;Edwards & Protheroe, 2004;Evertson & Smithey, 2001;Franke & Dahlgren, 1996;Geldens, 2007;Hawkey, 1998aHawkey, , 1998bMartin, 1997;Orland-Barak & Klein, 2005;Stanulis & Russell, 2000;Veenman & Denessen, 2001;Vonk, 1996;Wang, 2001;Wang, Strong, & Odell, 2004;Williams et al, 1998), "mentor teacher" (Feiman-Nemser, Parker, & Zeichner, 1992;Strong & Baron, 2004), "school-based mentor" (Edwards, 1997;Hughes, 1998;Timperley, 2001), "school teacher mentor" (Haggarty, 1995;Turner, 1993), "class teacher" (Dunne & Bennett, 1997;Edwards & Protheroe, 2004), "cooperating teacher" (Borko & Mayfield, 1995;Coulon, 1994;Dunn & Taylor, 1993), "coach" (Engelen, 2002;Veenman & Denessen, 2001), "coach-teacher" (Edwards & Green, 1999), and "induction tutor" (Harrison, Lawson, & Wortley, 2005). We speak of the "second position" when supervisory activities are carried out by someone who is part of the school staff or school district, and is not working as a teacher.…”

“…If a study dealt with more than one theme, it is mentioned here only once. The themes are: "the content of the dialogues" (Borko & Mayfield, 1995;Edwards & Collison, 1996); "mentor teacher style/supervisory skills" (Ben-Peretz & Rumney, 1991;Dunne & Bennett, 1997;Feiman-Nemser & Parker, 1990;Feiman-Nemser et al, 1992;Geldens et al, 2005;Haggarty, 1995;Hawkey, 1998b;Martin, 1997;Stanulis, 1995;Williams et al, 1998); "specific supervisory skills: giving advice" (Dunn & Taylor, 1993;Strong & Baron, 2004); "conceptions of mentoring" (Edwards & Protheroe, 2004;Franke & Dahlgren, 1996;Orland-Barak & Klein, 2005); "effects of training on mentor teachers" (Crasborn, Hennissen, & Brouwer, 2005;Evertson & Smithey, 2001;Timperley, 2001;Veenman & Denessen, 2001); "effects of supervisory activities by the mentor teachers on prospective teachers" (Coulon, 1994;Harrison et al, 2005;Hawkey, 1998a;Hughes, 1998); "influence of cultural context on mentor teachers behaviour" (Wang et al, 2004).…”

Restructuring and Reculturing: Practicum supervision as professional development for teachers

“…By making teachers active participants in the process, there is the possibility of great improvement. The co-operating teachers see the opportunity to contribute as recognition of their experience and active role in the process (Adey & Speedy, 1993;Hawkey, 1998).…”

Student teachers’ beliefs about mentoring and learning to teach during teaching practice

“…In spite of the personal in uences that shape mentors' roles, referred to in the fourth theme, some common features of mentoring have been described in the literature. In short, mentors should ful l several roles (e.g., Anderson & Shannon, 1988) such as being a model and instructor of students' teaching (e.g., Maynard & Furlong, 1994), an information source for tips and advice (e.g., Hawkey, 1998), a co-enquirer who stimulates students' re ections on their own lessons (e.g., Feiman-Nemser & Parker, 1993;Maynard & Furlong, 1994;Tomlinson, 1995), an evaluator (e.g., Martin, 1996), a challenger (e.g., Martin, 1996), a provider of an introduction to the teaching world (e.g., Feiman-Nemser & Parker, 1993), and a coach or supporter (e.g., Hawkey, 1998;Tomlinson, 1995). More detailed overviews of mentor roles have been provided by Hawkey (1997) and Zanting, Verloop, Vermunt, and Van Driel (1998).…”